Premier League Season 2006-2007
April 11th, 2008
Manchester United ended the season as Premiership champions for the ninth time in fifteen years, after Chelsea failed to win against Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium. This left them seven points behind United, with two games to go, confirming the Manchester club as champions once more.
The three relegation spots were occupied by Watford and Sheffield United who lasted one season in the league, along with Charlton Athletic who went down after The Premier League expected to have the league's 15,000th goal scored at some point in the period between Christmas and New Year. The target was reached on December 30 when Moritz Volz scored for Fulham against Chelsea. Barclays, the Premiership's sponsor, donated £15,000 to the Fulham Community Sports Trust in Volz' name. Additionally, a fan who correctly predicted that Volz would score the historic goal in a contest presented the player with a special award prior to Fulham's game against Watford at Craven Cottage on 1 January. The honour of scoring the 15,000th goal has led to Volz being nicknamed "15,000 Volz" (his name is often pronounced in English as "Volts", although the proper German pronunciation would be "Folts").
On 17 March, Tottenham Hotspur goalkeeper Paul Robinson scored against Watford from an 83-yard free kick, which bounced over his England team mate Ben Foster, who was in goal for the Hornets, leading Spurs to a 3-1 win at White Hart Lane. This was the third goal scored by a goalkeeper in Premiership history. The other two were scored by Peter Schmeichel, for Aston Villa against Everton on 21 October 2001, and Brad Friedel, for Blackburn Rovers against Charlton Athletic on 21 February 2004. In those two cases, the teams they played for lost. Robinson became the first keeper to score for the winning team in a Premiership match.
This season's awards were dominated by Manchester United, who, as a team, picked up a total of eight awards, five of which went to Cristiano Ronaldo. They also had eight players in the Team of the Year.
The PFA Players' Player of the Year award for 2007 was won by Cristiano Ronaldo. He had won the PFA Young Player of the Year award earlier on in the awards ceremony, making him the first player to win both awards in the same year since Andy Gray managed the same feat in 1977. Didier Drogba came second, while Paul Scholes was third.
The PFA Young Player of the Year award was also won by Cristiano Ronaldo of Manchester United. Cesc FÃ bregas came in second place, and Aaron Lennon was third. Wayne Rooney was going for a hat-trick of Young Player of the Year awards, having won this award for both of the two preceding seasons, but didn't even feature in the top three for the 2006-07 season.
PFA Fans' Player of the Year award was voted for in an online poll run by the PFA on their website GiveMeFootball.com. With four days of voting left before the closing date of midnight on 15 April, the five players with the most votes in the poll were Cristiano Ronaldo, Steven Gerrard, Dimitar Berbatov, Thierry Henry and Frank Lampard, but it was Ronaldo who managed to fend off the challenges of the other four.
The Football Writers' Association Footballer of the Year award for 2007 was also won by Cristiano Ronaldo. The award is presented by the Football Writers' Association and voted for by its members. This year, Didier Drogba came second and Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes came third and fourth respectively.
Barclays Manager of the Season award was presented to Manchester United's Sir Alex Ferguson before the club's final game of the season against West Ham.
Barclays Player of the Season award was also presented before Manchester United's game with West Ham on the last day of the season, and was awarded to Cristiano Ronaldo, granting him the sextuple of PFA Players' Player, Young Player, Fans' Player of the Year, Barclays Premiership Player of the Season, Football Writers' Association Player of the Year and a place in the Team of the Year.
On 12 February 2007, the FA Premier League renamed itself simply the Premier League, complete with new logo, sleeve patches and typeface. The sponsored name remains the Barclays Premiership.
